ismere_worldfandomcom-20200215-history
Dwarves
Taken from an excerpt from "Corona's Guide to The Northern Continent" The Dwarves. Dwarves in the northern continent are a hardy people. They make homes underground out of sturdy stuff, much like themselves. Their home in the south of the continent is called the Ironroot Hall. They have other cities and outposts around the southern area as well. The total population of the Dwarves is unknown to outsiders but most believe it to be more than five hundred thousand. The Ironroot mountains are the home to these people. It is a mountain range stretching from the swampy lands of the south east all the way to the arid deserts of the west. It covers most of the continents southern coast and meets the sea as large cliffs. The area in the oceans directly south is filled with small islands that are both dangerous and said to contain many valuable minerals. These lead to Dwarven expeditions that are generally ill-fated. The mountains are a rich source of minerals for the crafting of Dwarven items and sold to the northern human cities for high prices, due to their generally high level of craftsmanship. The depths of the tunnels are often boasted by the Dwarves and they collects rare and precious metals like Mithril, Adamantine and Star-Metal from the depths. the mountains are heavily mined and yet still have much wealth yet to be discovered, there are two primary mines in the mountains, both west of the capital city of Ironroot Hall. First is the Eternium Mine, owned by the Crown and protected by the royal army. It is highly productive and is the only source of the ultra-rare mineral the mine is named after. Though the amount that is recovered is so miniscule that only a handful of weapons have ever been forged with this mineral. The other Mine is known as Gromgir's Fault. It is a play on words meaning both the fault line that crosses the mine, and the failure that the mine originally presented, placing blame of Gromgir, the original founder. It was originally a highly productive mine, which would have guaranteed the Stoneweaver clan a massive amount of wealth, and for the first few years it did so. Until a gas pocket was struck by a miner, causing an explosion that killed Gromgir's son Gromgar. After the accident rumors of the place being cursed sprouted up. Seemingly making these fears come to life was a terrible earthquake that shook the entire western mountain chain. The resulting devastation rended the mine in two, creating a deep fault fissure through the entire complex. Many miners died in the accident, among them was Gromgir himself. His family continued to mine there, building a complex series of rope bridges to connect the sides of the fissure. In the years since the mine has steadily produced large amounts of iron and gold. Despite the problems of the mine it has earned the Stoneweaver clan a significant amount of wealth and prestige in the their society. Many smaller mines dot the mountain chain, though none produce as much as the two named above. The Dwarves society is separated into strict clan structures. Clans are large groups of allied families and number between the thousands and dozens. Clans are often known for some particular crafting skill, great warrior, or great deed performed in the past. These stories and skills are considered the most precious treasures of a clan. The clans are organized into a caste system as well, with four levels each representing a different amount of prestige a clan has. The top caste is called the Adamant Caste, and has the highest prestige among dwarf society. This caste comprises the Royal families and the clans that are regarded as legendary in crafts and skills. Adamant clans are usually large and have clan holdings spread throughout the continent. They have a vast amount of wealth and have a large force of arms, most have sub-clans that serve them. For example the great Weaponsmiths the Darksteel clan have on permanent contract the loyalty and arms of the Ironhammer clan to serve as guards and soldiers. This denotes the Ironhammer clan as lower in the prestige system, and since marriages only occur between clans on the same level the groups would therefore never become intermarried. This serves to vex most human thinkers, but seems to serve the Dwarves just fine. Adamant Clans make up a small portion (15%) of Dwarven society. The next level of prestige is called the Gold clans, these are powerful clans that have a wide reach, but not the excessive wealth or power of an adamant clan. There are dozens of gold clans each with a bragging right of some sort. They make up a decent portion (20%) of Dwarven society. An example Gold clan is the Ironhammers, renowned for their strength at arms and tactics. A gold clan may have multiple clan holds in different cities, and control some amount of trade or craft in a city. The next level of prestige is the Silver clans, these are clans that have distinguished themselves in some way and have a modest amount of wealth and power. A silver clan usually operates in one or two cities, and has one or two clan holds located near the heart of the Dwarven lands. The amount of silver clans is a large (30%) portion of the Dwarven society. There are many silver clans, but few are noteworthy. Those of the lowest level of prestige are called Bronze clans. These clans are not known for any particular skill or craft, and are generic in their interests. They usually have one or no clan holds, and are small and located very near the safety of the Dwarven heartlands. The bronze clans make up the largest (35%) portion of Dwarven society. The clans of this level often have just enough wealth to function. Indeed there is a lower level of prestige than bronze, but it is unofficial and used as an insult, it is called the tin caste. Dwarves of the tin caste are officially bronze and make up a small portion (20%) of that caste. They have no more than a shanty in the Dwarven capital and are usually penniless and unskilled. Calling a dwarf a member of the tin class is considered a terrible insult and is usually met with a violent retort. Speaking of violence, the Dwarves love it. They adore violent activities, fistfights, melee weapon fighting, ranged weapon fighting, they love fighting in general. It is a pride issue that most of them feel they are superior martial fighters than a member of the other civilized races. It is my humble opinion that they feel they need to make up for their short stature, but my opinion or not, they are impressive to behold in a fight. Though they are smaller than men and elves, they make up for the size with a determination and almost sixth-sense about fighting. Dwarves have a love of particular weapon as well, as the elves love the rapier and long bow, the Dwarves love hammers and axes. Perhaps this is because they use items like them to fell trees to fuel their forges and hammers to pound out weapons over said forge. Regardless, they use axes of both one and two-handed styles, called a war and battle axe respectively (a running joke among most Non-Dwarves is that the names are different because those who use a two handed axe will participate in a single battle while those who use a one handed axe and a shield will survive the war). The Dwarven Urgrosh is a ridiculous weapon to say the least, imagine a spear with a metal shaft, then attach a large axe head to the other end, they are swung around in great arcs in combat. Honestly they are dangerous to foes, but unwieldy to say the least. Another facet of the Dwarves love of fighting is the great arena they have constructed near the center of the Ironroot Halls. This place is a blood ring, fights to the death occur here, usually part of the Dwarves justice system, but more on that later. The arena is a large building, the size of the great theater of the elves of which I have already written. The Dwarves use this arena mostly for entertainment purposes, staging great battles against animals, or more rarely monsters captured by the Wildmen guild (more on them later). These battles are large, usually a dozen or more Dwarves in each battle, against larger numbers of animals or monsters. As a rare treat the arena stages tournaments between the dwarf champions in non-lethal battles. The wagers on this tournament alone would be equal to the wealth of most human noble families. Needless to say the amount of gold that changes hands on that day shifts the balance of prestige in dwarf society. Many families are elevated to a higher prestige level because of a wise bet in the tournament of champions. One of the greatest champions the arena has ever seen was a half-elf woman who bested the current Dwarven champions then bested a Remorhaz. Though most Dwarves believe their legendary champion Maxwell Silverhammer could have bested her in a fight, however he had gone missing decades before due to mysterious circumstances. Most staunch Dwarves still consider him to be the champion over the foreigner. The arena itself is a large building made of stone (of course) it is oval shaped and three tiers tall, the capacity of the arena is believed to be near one hundred thousand, and during the entire champions tournament it is over filled. In fact, for the week of fighting all clan business and even wars come to a halt because they believe the champions tournament to be a sacred part of their year. Speaking of warfare, the Dwarves despite their love of violence do not often go to war. In the reckoning of the elves the Dwarves have gone to war less than ten times in the course of the last thousand years. Sometimes against human cities over trade rights or other political issues, but more often against start-up kingdoms of orcs who settle in their part of the world. The style of warfare the Dwarves prefer is simple, they take to the field in heavy armor, and move in slowly in tight formations, breaking slightly when they reach an enemy to engage in more one-on-one fighting. They forgo most ranged weapons in war, and dislike the use of magic in large scale battle. Being such a hardy people they present a near unstoppable force in a battle, being a tide of clanking metal feet with large axes and hammers. This strategy serves them well, and has only lead to a few defeats in their history, notably in a war against the elves over the logging rights to a massive forest. The Dwarves slow pace made them easy prey for the faster moving bow wielding elvish army. Even though the war was resolved without much bloodshed the two races have never seen eye to eye since (sorry bad joke). One important thing the reader should know about Dwarves is their obsession with honor. Just listening to them speak they will mention it multiple times in the same sentence. They have an unnatural love of their honor code, and would rather die than fail it somehow. If you are not Dwarven born I have a word of advice to you, do not attempt to understand the Dwarven code of honor. They quote lines from it like it reveals answers in all situations, and yet it makes little sense to me. Dwarven honor is the second most important thing in their society, after money of course. They fight for honor and they marry for honor, they work for honor, and it seems to a humble observer, that they can lose that honor with a single misstep or lack of some proper protocol in their day to day life. they enjoy gems King Uud Nine-hammer clan structure Guilds - Wildmen justice system quality of metals iron – mithril – adamantine – star-metal – eternium